X-Millenials
by Jozua
Summary: As anti-mutant sentiments surge with shifting baselines in world politics, the X-Men assemble a new team of younger mutants to help them combat violence. Takes place at a crossroads between the movies (post-Days of Future Past), X-Men: Evolution, New X-Men Academy and the major comic thread. Contains intense violence, mild language and sexual content; reader discretion is advised


**X-Millenials**

J.H.

**Disclaimer: **The author does not have any affiliation with Marvel, Fox or any creative or enterprise associate involved with the production or distribution of X-Men. Any similarities to real people or events is coincidental and not the responsibility of the author.

**Self-rating: **Mature Teen (16+) for intense violence, mild language and sexual content. Reader discretion is advised.

**Background: **This story takes place within the movie universe of X-Men proceeding from Days of Future Past. Characters and plot points from other universes, including the main comics, New X-Men Academy and X-Men: Evolution are also represented. Original characters (OC) are also present in various functions. Societal issues that the author finds reasonable to engage with in this format are discussed and may or may not reflect the author's opinion at various times.

**Chapter 01: Assemble**

Wolverine growled loudly as he was repelled through the air. His body fell to the ground with the heaviness of muscle and metal.

"Logan!" Jean called out but the man quickly stood, his injuries minimal. A figure emerged from the abandoned library, black hair protruding from beneath a thick red beanie.

"Just leave me alone. I don't want to hurt you" a husky voice said with amber eyes locked upon them.

"Kid, we're trying to help you" Logan pleaded roughly.

"Leave me alone or suffer the consequence!" Just then, a shock of deep red hair caught the teen's attention. Angry eyes found sad ones and loneliness found fear.

"Jean" Logan called to her and the woman smiled gently.

"I am not here to hurt you" she said and the teen considered her. She was beautiful, he thought, and her eyes seemed as lonely as his; still, he watched their movements carefully, having no desire to run in to the man's metal claws.

"You can feel that, can't you?"

"Stop it" he whispered, clutching his head.

"What is it that you're afraid of?" She approached cautiously.

"All of these feelings! Myself! Everything!"

_I understand. I feel that way, too sometimes_, she thought to him. Eyes calmed to a deep hazel and Jean caught the androgynous teen who rested against her.

"Please don't hurt me, I'm begging you."

* * *

><p>"Just set him on the table. Thanks, Logan" Jean said with a warm smile, her gaze becoming angry as she looked up to see her ex-husband and his new wife, Emma. After having grown up together and fought side-by-side for nearly a decade, their marriage had lasted only three years; her fusion with the Phoenix Force and the emotional turmoil preceding it had spelled the end of their relationship. She didn't begrudge him his weakness, but she did detest his new wife who was as cold as ice.<p>

"So, this is the one you were sent to get? Looks pretty rough…" Emma said, starting to reach toward the teen until Jean caught her wrist.

"Keep your hands off of him" she commanded, pushing her just slightly backward. Emma laughed and re-joined Scott, who perpetually looked apologetically toward Jean.

"Don't forget that we still have to round up the other three" Emma called, earning an even deeper scowl from Jean.

"I'll go talk with the Professor" Logan said, closing the door behind himself and separating Jean and Emma by two feet of steel – it still wasn't enough, it would never be enough.

Jean set to work at removing the worn-through layers of clothing from the teen's body. She was surprised to find a female body hidden within the fabric. She cut away the shirt carefully to reveal the underweight figure beneath it. Her eyes darkened as she felt the skin that stretched over ribs just enough to verify that the teen was a runaway. She unbuttoned the teen's jeans and in that moment, her wrist was seized violently, and terrified eyes searched her, burning amber.

"It's alright, I'm a doctor." She reached out with her free hand and gently cupped his arm to steady him.

"What kind of doctor?" The question was one of suspicion. Jean didn't allow her gaze to falter but easily lifted the cabinets on a nearby wall, then setting them down.

"I'm a mutant, like you. We've brought you to a school; you'll be safe here." Again, her words soothed the raging mind.

"OK" the teen agreed.

"My name is Jean Grey, what's yours?" Jean asked gently, and the teen couldn't help but like her, despite being saddened.

"Do you need, like, my legal name? It's not what I go by…"

"Well, what would you like for me to call you?"

"Andrew" he said softly, and the pieces fell together in Jean's mind. The woman smiled at him, gently touching his face.

"That's a nice name" she said, letting him know her feelings. Without knowing why, he held her hand in place against his cheek.

"Sorry, it's just nice" he apologized and sadness seized upon her. She sat beside him on the table, draping her arm around his shoulders and letting him lean against her. As he relaxed, she scanned his mind. She heard the screamed admonitions of his parents and classmates, tasted the blood that filled his mouth with injuries, one after another, and felt his powers surge forth as he was robbed of his innocence. She saw then his last five months of running from place to place. And yet he never harmed anyone without provocation, never took even when he had great need, never hated without justification. A single tear fell against her cheek, and sensing her heartbreak, he looked up, his thumb finding the tear and erasing it.

"You're broken, too" he whispered and she closed her eyes, centering within herself.

"Let's get you cleaned up" she said quickly, and he didn't protest.

* * *

><p>Jean entered the room behind Andrew, her hands resting on his shoulders, and her gaze instantly capturing Emma's; she refused to let her mind touch the other woman's but the message was clear.<p>

"You clean up pretty well" Logan said with a smirk; the message had also been received by him – this boy belonged to Jean, which meant that Logan liked him already.

"Thanks" he said, ruffling his own damp hair nervously.

"Sorry about before; I'm glad that you're not hurt" he said, shifting his eyes around the room.

"Don't worry about it. I can take a pretty good beating. The name's Logan" he offered along with his hand.

"Um... Andrew" he said, shaking his hand, finding it heavier than it should have been but lighter than it could have been offered.

"And I'm Charles Xavier, you're at my school for mutants" said a man with a slightly watered-down British accent. He was perhaps in his mid-sixties, and sat comfortably enough in his wheel chair to let Andrew know that he'd be in it for a very long time. Andrew had already taken notice of a man with a Star Trek-like visor over his eyes, a very cold-seeming blonde woman beside him, a dark-haired boy and black-haired girl of his own age standing with them. Across the room stood a tall woman with dark skin and white hair, a brown-haired girl with a friendly face standing beside her. Near Logan stood a woman with a white streak coursing through her otherwise brown hair, and a sad-looking boy stood beside her.

"We need more girls" Andrew stated simply, and Jean chuckled.

"Tired of me already?" He blushed lightly but laughed, and she liked his laugh.

"It's just that if we're supposed to be forming a team, we need more girls, I think. That is why we've been brought here?" Xavier smirked a little.

"Right you are, Andrew. You see, with the level of anti-mutant activity and the reactionary factions, the team that you see before you is becoming strained as is their sister team that's based in Prague; they can't be everywhere at once. So, we had an idea to form another team of younger mutants, trained by existing members, to assist in averting some potentially dangerous events."

"What do you say, kid, want to help save the world?" Jean almost rolled her eyes at Logan but smiled instead at the teen's reaction.

"Two questions: I'm with Jean, right?" Xavier smiled and gestured with open palms.

"I doubt that either of you would accept an alternative."

"Good" he said, scanning the room again.

"What's your other question?" Scott asked and the teen smiled, his terrified eyes now focused and amber.

"When do I get started?" his response was to Scott but his eyes fell on Xavier who smiled.

"Right away if you feel up to it. Our last three members need to be assembled and we may need your help."

"Professor, who are the other three?" asked Rogue. Xavier tapped the arm of his chair and a holographic projection appeared showing a girl in a burqa.

* * *

><p>"Her name is Sooraya Qadir" he stated, and then the projection showed the girl dematerializing into a sand storm and slicing apart men who surrounded her with guns.<p>

"She's currently being held in a prison in Kabul, and any provocation could cause a very serious foreign relations problem. Kurt is on his way there now. Another is Ororo's nephew, Evan…"

"His plane should be landing at five this evening" she confirmed and he nodded.

"The last member could be particularly difficult…"

"Yes, both difficult to recruit and potentially difficult for Jean especially to deal with" came a deep voice, and Andrew was amazed to see a man in his fifties completely covered in blue fur but sporting reading glasses and a three piece suit emerge from an unseen corner of the room.

"Woah…" commented the boy standing near Scott and Emma and he and the girl laughed.

"Why should I have any problem with them?"

"Well… the last member is the child of our friend Warren Worthington."

"I didn't know Warren had a kid" Scott said and Hank nodded.

"That's because he didn't want you to know, or more pointedly, Jean to know. The child's mother was Madelyne Pryor" Hank said solemnly, and Andrew felt a pang of discord surface from Jean.

"Jean" Xavier started and Jean shook her head.

"What do they look like?"

"Warren refused to send a picture but by his account, remarkably like you."

"Yes, remarkable especially considering that Warren and Ms. Pryor had a son together" Hank stated and Andrew felt golden eyes pass over him.

"Who's this Pryor chick anyway?" asked the girl beside Scott; the man remained silent but was clearly displeased with her attitude.

"A clone. When Jean was a teenager, she was injured on a mission and a man calling himself Sinister used her DNA to create a woman named Madelyne Pryor. He accelerated her growth but kept her unconscious. When Magneto destroyed his compound in Colorado about sixteen years ago, she was awakened by the Phoenix Force. However, eight years ago when Jean began to fuse with the Phoenix, Madelyne simply vanished. Warren has told us that she was a very good mother but for reasons that are unclear, the child has no recollection of her."

"He also, very erroneously, thinks that the reason for their son's femininity is that internally, he's actually searching for her. I think that the Phoenix took all of those memories to spare him the loss."

"But Warren is a very… conventional man, Hank."

"Conventional or just a bad father?" asked Scott and Jean couldn't help but smile at him. Scott would have made a great father, she thought, in another life. Andrew noticed that smile and the sadness behind it – he noticed everything.

"Will you be OK to have them here?" Andrew asked of her, looking upward for she was still standing directly behind him.

"I'll be fine" she assured, rubbing his arms gently.

"In that case, let me go. Let me talk to them and see what's going on."

"Why? Are you some kind of queer-clone-child whisperer?"

"Yes" said Andrew, facing the arrogant boy beside Emma with a stern gaze.

* * *

><p>Warren had opened the door for them and guided them to the closed door behind which his eldest child had taken refuge. He hadn't looked at Jean nor did she display any interest in him.<p>

"Nathan… Nate, there are some people here to see you – old friends of mine from school." There was no response, and Warren sighed.

"He doesn't speak to me anymore" he explained, still not facing them. He grimaced, clearly unaccustomed to not getting his way. Before Logan could do so, Scott threw the man against a wall.

"What the hell did you do to your kid?"

"What would you know about it!? You don't have kids because you were too much of a pansy to hold on to her and ran off with the ice witch instead! You tell me what the hell I'm supposed to do with a kid who goes against his own nature! I didn't raise him to be like this!" Scott released him roughly.

"You're pathetic, Warren, you always have been and always will be. I'm a coward but at least I had enough courage to face reality instead of a lie of convenience. Move aside, all of you" he said, and he blasted through the doorknob, pushing the door open slowly and looking to Andrew.

"Do your thing" he said and Andrew nodded without hesitation.

* * *

><p>"Please, just leave me alone" came a terrified, husky voice from the farthest corner. Andrew stopped, allowing his eyes to adjust to the dimness of the room that was illuminated only from the hallway. Long, tousled red hair was paired with crimson wings that surrounded the teen's body. Dried tears formed trails down a face much like Jean's but also very much its own. Andrew kneeled.<p>

"I'm not here to hurt you" he said softly, crawling forward.

"No… Just let me be…"

"That's fine. Then let me be with you" he said, reaching out to touch a wing gently. Brown eyes searched each other.

"You're… not a guy…" Andrew chuckled.

"Yeah I am, just a different kind. My name's Andrew, what's yours?" The androgynous teen looked away.

"Nathan, I guess."

"You guess? You're not sure?"

"Do I have a choice?" The question was asked with bitterness.

"That depends on you." The wings twitched slightly and relaxed, revealing the slender body cloaked in a soft tan dress. Andrew smiled and rested his chin on his knee.

"A pretty girl called Nathan, huh? You learn something new every day." Her wings twitched again, this time relaxing against her back and she looked down, biting her lip.

"You're the first person to ever see me as myself and call me pretty" she said and Andrew stood, extending his hand to her.

"Then not enough people have seen the real you" he said with a bright smile. Hesitantly, she took his hand and stood. He was taller than her but only slightly; he didn't let go of her hand as they emerged from the room.

* * *

><p>"Good God, Nathan! What are you wearing!? Go take that off!" Andrew stared down the man unflinchingly.<p>

"You don't tell her what to do anymore" he said.

"He, he is a boy!"

"Warren" Jean said harshly.

"Enough" she added, never looking at him. Logan retracted his claws as he saw the man pale, defeated by his own shame at his betrayal of her.

"Let's go home" Scott said. Nathan didn't look at her father nor did she release her hold upon Andrew's hand until they'd been situated in the X-jet for some time.


End file.
